Leinster v Connacht Sat 19.45

[nelly the elephant]

What a spectacle Ladies & Gentlemen......

[XyzFoo]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

Don't think the ref called a knock on. But it was a penalty.

[wixfjord]

Ah shur we were always in control, just wanted to make a bit of a Christmas spectacle.

Jaysus.

Awful for 60-65 and then ridiculous for 15. Porter was immense.
Mick K had a cracker too.

Keenan needs a good bit of positional coaching.

[wixfjord]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

You're not aware of the offside law no Tom?

[Fireworks]

Very tough on Connaucht. They targeted this game and had the prize stolen from them right at the end. From a Leinster point of view it was a mixed bag with periods on quality mixed with average.

[curates_egg]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

Where did this guy come to the forum from? Comedy gold.
He's like the reverse Ross O'Carroll Kelly.

As previously in the thread, I will agree that Clancy is a terrible ref.
Could you not just take him back and let him ref schools games in Munster?

[backrower8]

The 6 Swordsmen steer Saint Leinster home to victory over former classmate Kelleher

[CiaranIrl]

It's sort of cruel to give MOTM to someone on the losing team in those circumstances. Carty's post match, pitch side interview was torture. Unnecessary really.

Clancy at the end was dire. I think I saw about a dozen penalty offenses not given in the last few minutes - about 8 for us, 4 for them.

[Blueberry]

Not even going to bother trying to analyse that one....

Just great fun, what a last 15 mins....dead and buried...and resurrection from nowhere. Fair play to Deegan, Fardy, Ruddock and man beast Porter who bulldozed Connacht into the ground in the last phases of that game. Long drive home for the Westies. Have to feel for them and they put together some nice work for large parts.

Clancy hopeless.....Fitzgibbon esq performance from the bottom drawer.

[hugonaut]

That was a hell of an entertaining game. Thought that we had let them get one score too far ahead when we conceded the penalty and had it walked back 10m to put it in Carty's range, but it ended up making the comeback even sweeter.

A lot of credit should go to Connacht, who played some super rugby in both halves. They're a very well-coached side and there's a lot of talent there, particularly in the backline. Leader, Farrell, Carty and Blade were all excellent, and obviously Aki is a monster. Good performances too from Butler and Boyle in the backrow.

Now that I think about it, they had good performances in most units, albeit they struggled at the scrum. We didn't really get a read on their lineout despite them not having any real height in the pack outside their row, and they attacked particularly well off it. Our midfield defense was porous pretty much throughout the game, with a lot of different players making bad reads or incomplete tackles, but it's not often that we have been made to pay that high a price.

Andrew Porter made a big impact when he came on, and deserves a lot of praise for his efforts. 13 carries in a little over 40 minutes is an impressive total from a tighthead. Fardy was, once again, outstanding. He's such a good all round rugby player. Mick Kearney earned his stripes and his try. Some iffy handling sent his score down from an A to a B, but it was his best performance this season. Some good moments from most of our forwards over the course of 80 minutes, but some poor play as well, particularly in defense. We seemed to have problems completing tackles and stopping Connacht on the gainline, but I suppose you have to give the individual Connacht carriers praise on that count as well.

Frawley looks like he has forgotten how to play fullback unfortunately. On the other hand, I was very impressed with Adam Byrne, who seemed to have the Indian sign on his opposite man. Every time he got the ball – on the right or in the middle of the pitch – we were making yards and streaming forward. Some good play from Locko as well, who looked like the threequarter line's senior pro in most things that he did. Gibson-Park also a big contributor throughout the game, and his battle with Blade was pretty spicy.

All told, the best game I've seen in the RDS this season. We've put in better performances, against Wasps for example, but in terms of a competitive fixture this was the best. Really enjoyable!

[blockhead]

That's my christmas pressie sorted, thanks plumber and the boys.
Do I feel sorry for Connacht? Do I fup! I have far to much respect for them than to offer them my pity. They played great, they lost, it happens.
Some finish though, talk about value for money.
I fuppin lurve Leinster.

[blockhead]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

Go to bed Tom. Wake up in the morning and get sick all over again. Refs love Leinster.

[Gearzbox2]

I felt Andy Dufresne when he got out Shawshank after that match tonight!!!

Very very lucky but you can’t doubt the heart and will to win from them boys tonight
41 phases to score the winner and it was fitting it was porter who was outstanding
Bench really added incredible impact from cronin to Ed Bryne to Reid to Deegan to Molony

Thought Adam and Dave K were really impressive, delighted for both...COB I think got a small bit shown up what it takes at this level in that intensity
Say what you want about Ross Bryne play at times but his kicking when we needed every point was really really impressive

Lancaster will have a field day with some lads over their try’s which IMO bar their first one were very sloppy
Huge credit to Connacht, their attack play and defense at times was so impressive
Must be very deflated after that to come so close

We are in such a good position now in the conference, but this game in TP will be spicy non the less!!!!

[Ruckedtobits]

We have 3.5 very decent Coaching teams among the four Irish Provinces. Munster need to find a backs Coach or an attack Coach to even up the balance.

That was a cracking game tonight and despite the comments on this thread, IMO, Clancy contributed well to it. Some of his decisions around the breakdown / scrumhalf tackle were unusual but having watched back, he was consistent in his interpretation. And yes, Bundee did knock on as he cleaned out JGP and collected the ball.

Connacht can attack and defend but Carty possibly realised in his MOTM interview that he game us back the ball too easily and, even if Frawley looked unsure at full-back, he carried the ball back to support every time in the last 10 minutes. Leavy took a long time to get to the pace of the game but, by the end he was back to his gang-busting best.

Theres a lot of competition, and complications, for selection of our best team but surely we now understand that Fardy must be in it somewhere.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I'm not buying into the idea of us being lucky. I thought we were the better team for most of the game, but Connacht had about five chances and actually took four of them. Leavy's try was as good a try as you'll see all season, and to hold onto the ball from 76:47 until we got over the line 41 phases later at 81:52 was absolutely phenomenal play.

I don't mean to be harsh on Connacht and I hope that doesn't sound biased, but in those first 25 minutes or so they really did only have two chances and they took them, whereas we dominated but couldn't make it count. Our defence was much better in the second half and we were actually pushing them back until Butler overran the ball and Carty had to have a rethink and danced around Rhys. The last penalty they got should have gone the other way and I don't blame us for having a go at Clowncy and being marched back, that was a big swing in the game and Connacht didn't deserve it. They were really clinical but all I'm saying is that the scoreline flattered them. They played well and I thought their tries were all brilliant, but that doesn't mean we were lucky.

Our midfield defence was really poor. It seemed like Ross, COB, and ROL just weren't connected at all. I thought COB was really good in attack (his offload down the left was superb) but to me it looked like he was doing his own thing in defence and made some bad calls. Connacht worked their first two tries brilliantly though, sat down Ross and COB and were really well drilled and precise with what they did afterwards to make the momentum count.

Both Keenan and Frawley seemed to struggle with their positioning. I could be wrong but thought the wingers were fine, seemed to just be the fullbacks.

Ross did a lot of good things but he forced things in the first half, don't ever remember him floating passes like that before and his passing was generally fairly erratic. It was clearly a tactic to try and get outside their midfield defence but it was only when Reid came on that we started to execute well and really make it count. I'll never understand why people are down on Noel, his defence hasn't been poor (sure he's had the odd poor game just like most players) for years at this stage, his passing is good, his carrying is decent now, and he always looks to make a difference.

The forward subs were great. I liked that we brought Porter on early but thought we should have done the same with Deegan. Doris had a couple of good carries early on but faded after that and made a good few mistakes. He picked and ran into his own man, had a really poor missed tackle in midfield, and was stripped really easily which then led to Carty getting over for his try.

Thought JGP was really good. His assist for the first try was brilliant and he kept the tempo up and organised people well near the end of the game despite clearly being wrecked.

I was seriously impressed with Adam again. I said before that I liked how vocal and hungry for work he was with the A team when he'd clearly have preferred to be elsewhere, and he seems to have carried that with him to the firsts. He seemed to make a positive impact every single time he got the ball and his offloading inside was a serious threat. He did miss a couple of tackles but I wouldn't hold them against him and he just looks like he's reaching his full potential.

Fardy would have been my MOTM though. I love how good his all round game is and that he can adapt to whatever is needed. He spent a lot of the last 15 minutes out wide where he carried, passed, and offloaded really well, but then when he was needed in the trenches for the pick and goes he was able to do that brilliantly too.

Special mention for Porter's dive (although his finish was great and probably deserves one too), haven't seen something like that since Hickie against Australia in 2006!

[ronk]

Our passing was a bit static at times which made life hard.

Some poor defence but against good hard lines and variety from Connacht. Aki caused problems in midfield and Carty kept us honest. He was really good.

Connacht faded when we turned up the pressure, not many teams fight all the way back from there. Really good effort from Leinster, especially the bench. Thought Ruddock didn't have a great game.

Ross Byrne carried well.

[chops]

Save one knock on, Mick Kearney was absolutely immense; carries; angles of run, defensive tackles; try. Thought he was fardy for first 20 mins.

[tomthefan]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

Don't think the ref called a knock on. But it was a penalty.

It was a penalty for picking up the ball after his own player had knocked it on, only he hadn't. That moved play from connacht being in possession on the edge of your 22 to you having a line out in their half and a try in the come back came shortly after

[tomthefan]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

You're not aware of the offside law no Tom?

With the number of "flat" passes Leinster threw, Connacht would have had a lot of intercepts if they'd been living offside

[wixfjord]

Better side lost tonight, George let umpteen forward passes go. Then there was penalty after the knock on that wasn't. Sickener.

You're not aware of the offside law no Tom?

With the number of "flat" passes Leinster threw, Connacht would have had a lot of intercepts if they'd been living offside

Nope, I'm talking about the 'penalty after the knock on that wasn't' as you said.

Ball comes off Connacht player and man standing in front catches it. Offside.